BROOKLYN, NEW YORK (Sept. 7, 2024)—The Las Vegas Aces (22-12) have the longest active winning streak in the WNBA, having won 4 straight as they head to New York to take on the front-running New York Liberty (28-6). Tip for the Sunday, Sept. 8, contest is slated for 1 pm PT, and the game is being broadcast nationally on ESPN.
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After a 2-4 start to the post-Olympics portion of their season, the Aces have won 4 straight games to move into sole possession of fourth place in the WNBA standings, two game ahead of the Seattle Storm (20-13), and 2 games behind the Connecticut Sun in second place. Las Vegas currently owns the tiebreaker with both the Storm and the Sun.
| W | L | GB | Home | Road | |
| New York * | 28 | 6 | — | Sept. 8 | |
| Minnesota * | 25 | 9 | 3.0 | Sept. 15 | |
| Connecticut * | 24 | 10 | 4.0 | ||
| Las Vegas * |
22 | 12 | 6.0 | ||
| Seattle * | 20 | 14 | 8.0 | Sept. 17 | |
| Indiana * | 18 | 17 | 10.5 | Sept. 11, 13 | |
| Phoenix * | 17 | 18 | 11.5 | ||
| Chicago | 12 | 22 | 16.0 | ||
| Atlanta | 12 | 22 | 16.0 | ||
| Washington | 11 | 23 | 17.0 | ||
| Dallas | 9 | 25 | 19.0 | Sept. 19 | |
| Los Angeles ^ | 7 | 27 | 21.0 | ||
| * Clinched Playoff Berth. ^ Eliminated From Playoff Contention |
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With 6 games remaining on their regular season schedule, New York still has a chance at the league record for wins in a season set last year by the Aces with 34. The Liberty would need to run the table to match Las Vegas.
New York has been sitting atop the league standings for the last 2-plus months, but are 3-2 over the team’s last 5 games with losses to Connecticut and Los Angeles.
The Liberty boast the most efficient offense in the league (106.9 OER) and the second most efficient defense (94.8 DER).
Their effective field goal percentage of 52.3 percent leads the W, and they take (29.4) and make (10.2) more 3-pointers per game than any team in the league. New York doesn’t get to the free throw line much (16.8 FTA per game, 10th in the WNBA), nor do they grab a high percentage of offensive rebounds (.295, 7th in the WNBA).
Defensively, they hold teams to 42.4 percent shooting from the field (2nd lowest in the W), and 31.7 percent from beyond the arc (3rd lowest). The Liberty also recently passed the Aces as the top defensive rebounding team in the league (.742 DReb%).
Breanna Stewart is posting another All-WNBA season, averaging 20.3 points (5th in the W), 8.6 rebounds (9th), 1.81 steals (5th), and 1.38 blocks (1.38) per game. Sabrina Ionescu also ranks in the top 10 in the league in scoring (7th, 19.4 ppg) while handing out 6.0 assists per game (5th), and knocking down 91.1 percent of her free throw attempts (3rd).
Jonquel Jones (14.7 ppg) and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (12.2 ppg) give New York two additional double-digit scorers on the year.
Since beginning the season with a 6-6 mark, the Aces are tied with the New York Liberty for the most wins in the league, going 16-6 since June 16. The improvement has come most prominently on defense, where their efficiency rating has improved by more than 6 points per 100 possessions
| Aces | PPG | FG% | 3G% | OER | DER | OppPPG | OppFG% | Opp3G% |
| First 12 games (6-6) | 86.9 | .428 | .344 | 105.4 | 104.2 | 85.7 | .445 | .393 |
| Last 24 games (16-6) | 86.9 | .469 | .346 | 106.2 | 97.9 | 79.9 | .427 | .336 |
A’ja Wilson continues to shatter records this season, and she has a few more in her sights that should come tumbling down over Las Vegas’ remaining 6 games. Her 929 points scored this year are just 10 behind Jewell Loyd’s WNBA record of 939 from the 2023 season.
On Friday evening, the six-time All-Star broke the league record for “stocks” in a season besting Brittney Griner’s mark of 151 combined STeals and blOCKS in 2014. Wilson now has has 64 steals and 91 blocks for a total of 155 “stocks” on the year.
The two-time M’VP is averaging 27.2 points per game on the season, which is nearly 2 points per game better than the record 25.3 that Diana Taurasi averaged in 2006.
The South Carolina grad is also likely to become just the third player in WNBA history to block 100 or more shots in a season, joining Brittney Griner (3 times) and Margo Dydek (4 times).
Already this season, Wilson has set or tied WNBA records for …
Consecutive games scoring 20 or more points with 20 straight from August 28, 2023, to June 27, 2024.
Consecutive games scoring 25 or more points with 8 straight from May 25 to June 13, 2024,
Consecutive games scoring 30 or more points with 4 straight from September 2, 2023, to May 14, 2024
Consecutive games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds with 8 straight from July 5 to August 18, 2024
On September 1 at Phoenix, Wilson tied the WNBA record for most 40-point games in a career with 4 (Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart).
Out of all the players in WNBA history to average at least 20 points per game, Wilson’s 12.0 rebounds per game are the highest in league history, as are her 2.68 blocks per game.
Wilson’s 10.2 win shares are also far and away the most in the league—2.7 more than second place Breanna Stewart of New York and 3.9 more than Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier. To put that in perspective, Wilson’s season is more than an Aliyah Boston (3.7 win shares) or Jewell Loyd (3.5) better than Collier’s this year, and almost a Caitlin Clark (2.9) better than Stewart’s.
Oh, and she is doing all of this while leading the WNBA in lowest turnover percentage committing a miscue on just 5.6 percent of the possessions she impacts. In fact, here’s a trivia question for you. Can you name all the players in the history of the WNBA who have averaged at least 20 points per game in a season, while also making 50 percent or more of their field goal attempts, and committing fewer than 1.5 turnovers per game? The complete list is here.
Sorry. We got off on a bit of an A’ja Wilson tangent there.
Leading Sixth Player of the Year candidate Tiffany Hayes, who signed as a free agent with Las Vegas on May 31, has been the Aces second-best offensive player of late. Over the last 12 games, she is averaging 11.7 points per game, while shooting 58.9 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from 3-point range. For the season she now ranks 7th in the league in field goal percentage at 51.7 percent and 17th in 3-point field goal percentage at 36.8 percent.
Kelsey Plum (17.9 ppg) and Jackie Young (16.4 ppg) are also both ranked in the top 20 in the league in scoring. Plum’s 92 made 3s are the 6th most in the W this year, and she is on pace to become just the second player in league history to make 100 or more 3s in multiple seasons (Taurasi). In addition to her scoring, Young ranks 7th in the league in assists at 5.3 per game after tying the franchise record when she dished out 14 dimes at Phoenix on September 1.
This is the 3rd and final meeting between the Liberty and Aces this season. New York won both prior meetings in Las Vegas, 90-82 on June 15 and 79-67 on August 17.